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Staff Picks – Week of 02/11/2016

Saving Grace
Grace Wilson
Jonathan Cape

Will says: Grace and her three other roommates have been given their four week notice from their landlord and now Grace must face the difficulties of finding a new house, a fulfilling job and just general happiness in a world that is out to stop her.
Comically commentating on the injustices of life, Saving Grace is a story we can all relate to. Grace’s struggle could make for a very dispiriting tale, but this comic is absolutely hilarious! While being one of the funniest reads, this book stands out to me by being one of the prettiest I have read all year. Grace needs saving! So come and save her already.

Motor Girl
Terry Moore (w/a)
Abstract Studios

Joe says: As a casual Terry Moore fan, I was looking forward to this issue. As a fan of this issue, I am now very excited for the next. I knew it would be good – of course it would be, it’s Terry Moore… but I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it as much as I did. The characters are instantly loveable, the premise is delightful and Moore’s cartooning is second to none.

Alongside the likes of ‘Hellcat’, ‘Ms. Marvel’ and ‘Moon Girl’, ‘The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl’ is one of the legit. coolest and most positive books currently being published, at Marvel or anywhere else. Doreen follows up on her brilliant hardcover OGN outing with a well-deserved (and well-priced) hardcover collection the first two trades’s worth of stories, issues #1-8.

Ryan says: Rebirth has been a fascinating event from DC Comics, and one of the titles that’s got me the most excited has been Superman, featuring Clark Kent trying to help his young son, Jonathan, adapt to his newly discovered superpowers and find his place in the world. So who better to upset the balance than the son of Batman, Damian Wayne, who is maybe a little overeager to discover what kind of threat the new Superboy presents. Get ready for some personalities to clash in a big way!
picks-

Tonoharu – Part Three
Lars Martinson (w/a)
Pliant Press

Camila says: What joy to see and read the third and concluding volume of Tonoharu – an excellent novel about a young American who gets a job as an English teaching assistant in a small village in Japan.

It’s been a few years since the second part came out, and at some point I even wondered if the third book would ever see the light of the day, but that just makes it an even bigger treat to get to lose myself in Lars Martison’s beautiful art, and to find out how things turn out for his characters.

Oh, and the way it’s done – with a perfectly acceptable ending, but then 4 appendices, each for a different character, and an epilogue, all of which give a whole lot extra meaning for things you could have easily dismissed – is just perfect!

Foolkiller #1

Max Bemis (w), Dalibor Talajic (a)
Marvel Comics
Liz says: I picked up ‘Foolkiller’ because of writer Max Bemis, whose ‘Worst X-Man Ever’ was actually the best X-Men story I’ve read since Rick Remender’s dark epic ‘Uncanny X-force’. Like Bemis’ other work, the first issue of ‘Foolkiller’ is a disarmingly easy read, and a perfect way to become acquainted with the character. If you’ve never heard of Foolkiller, the sometimes-villain/sometimes-antihero who kills fools (or in his own words, the ‘poor man’s Punisher’), don’t worry about it. Bemis gives the character a solid bit of background with some cleverly laid exposition, a supporting cast you want to see more of and, by the end of the issue, a real desire to find out what kind of person Foolkiller Greg Salinger really is. This book has so much going for it: a great setup, snappy dialogue and quick, smart characterization, that it would be foolish to recommend anything else.